Empty Bowls Providing a Summer Lunch Program to Feed Hungry Kids

January 30, 2017; Each summer, over 2,200 school-age children in Gig Harbor may go home for summer vacation wondering if they are going to get enough food for the next 10-12 weeks. During the school year, those same kids are assured of lunches when their families qualify for the free and reduced price lunch. But in Gig Harbor, there is no summer lunch program.

Last year, when Altrusa of Gig Harbor Foundation sponsored the first Empty Bowls event in our community, the proceeds fed nearly 900 children over 4,000 meals and snacks at the Boys & Girls Club during their summer program.

This year's event on Saturday, February 18 at the Boys & Girls Club in Gig Harbor hopes to expand that goal and feed even more. Right now area potters are designing and creating hundreds of original bowls for the event, while thirteen local restaurants are preparing to cook up gallons of their specialty soups. All are generously donated to the cause.

At 11 am on Empty Bowls Saturday, the 18th, the doors of the Boys & Girls Club will open. Families and friends will choose from a large selection of hand-made bowls, for prices starting at $10. Each bowl purchased permits the buyer to a simple meal of soup and bread, provided by one of thirteen local restaurants or chefs. Children will eat free when accompanied by a paying adult. Guests take their bowl home as a reminder of the empty bowls in their community.

"Last year the response was amazing," says Altrusa's President Jan Hohman. "We ran out of bowls and soup early, but people just kept coming in and donating!" She recommends that people arrive early, even though there is twice the soup and more bowls this year. "We expect more people too!"